Poladroid

Originally uploaded by Tymcode
In the lower left is my original picture. I dragged it into a little Mac application called Poladroid a couple of times, and this is what I got.

What this app does is crop your picture to square, frame it in a Polaroid frame, add vignetting, add some random dust, and transform the color in Polaroid-like ways.

The first thing it does is pop out a little mini-polaroid that is the dull brown we know and love. And then it actuallymakes you wait for it to develop! Slowly.

If you turn the Stripe on in the preferences, it will add a fingerprint on the photo, the paper, or both, in random positions. It also randomizes the color effects, as you can see at the lower right from another one I got from the same picture.

Extra fun fact — if you put an alias to Poladroid in the Lightroom Export Actions folder, you can generate a Poladroid picture directly from Lightroom. (If you want me to explain that in detail, comment or email. you can do the same trick with Flickr Uploadr.)

Admit it — you love it.

Thanks to galadarling for bringing this fun little application to my attention.

I already knew this funny software ! Thanks a lot for lightroom Action Export tips ! it works like a charm.
Vincent from France

JFKuchen said,

April 21st, 2010

Hello,
can you give me an exact description of how to “put an alias to Poladroid in the Lightroom Export Actions folder”? I really don´t know how to do it and I would love to use this little program in Lightroom.

Well, it depends on if you’re on a Mac or Windows, now that Poladroid supports Windows. For the Mac, which is what I use, here’s how:

In Lightroom, select File > Export
Scroll to the bottom of the main panel to the “Post-Processing” section.
From the “After Export” popup menu, select “Go to Export Actions Folder Now”
Now open a new window from the Finder’s File menu.
Arrange it so that the Export Actions folder in the other window is visible.
Right-click (or Control-click) Poladroid in its directory (e.g. the Applications folder) and select Make Alias
Drag that alias to the Export Actions folder
From then on, any time you choose the “After Export:” popup, “Poladroid alias” will be there. You can open the Export Actions folder and rename the alias to just “Poladroid” if you want and then that’s what it will say in the popup.